Population Control in China: State-Sponsored Violence Against Women and Children

China’s infamous “One-Child Policy” marks its 35th anniversary this year. It has been called the world’s largest social experiment and has had tragic effects on Chinese families and society. Coercive population control policies are also the cause of a demographic time bomb. China has a rapidly aging population, a shrinking labor force, and a dramatic gender imbalance that drives regional human trafficking problems and potentially higher levels of crime and societal instability. China’s central government has started to gently revise its population control policies in the past year, though the overall policy and the huge bureaucracy that enforces it remain intact. When will China finally dismantle its coercive family planning practices? How will history judge the “One-Child Policy?” The hearing will examine the looming demographic, economic, and social problems associated with China’s “One-Child Policy” and seek recommendations on how the international community can assist China to address them.

Senator Marco Rubio, Cochairman

Witnesses

Valerie M. Hudson, Ph.D., Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair in the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University; Co-author, Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population